**

 

Lazarus and Dives (Latine derivation for rich man=proper name in time) have reversals in the story from a God's eye point of view. It pulls on the gospels earlier warning about wealth( Lk. 1, 6). Notice that we are not told about their moral lives at all. Jesus tells a fire and brimstone story, but it is not about following the 10 Commandments, nor about the mode of baptism, it is about how we treat each other. even the word for joy takes on two meanings from the the prodigal or the banquet here with the heavenly joy in heaven over the return of the lost.

 

Lazarus's name may well mean God helps (Eleazar), but it seems he has few blessings. He does not  even get crumbs while the rich are filled; they eat as in animals eating at a trough not dining (McGovern's daughter and death outside. the bosom of Abraham=highest bliss. Maybe Lazarus and the rich man both saw bliss as dining at a fabulous banquet, but Jesus says that is nothing compared to the great banquet of the culmination of history. Here we run up against the propserity gospel-

aren't blessing a sign of God's favor? Not to Jesus, indeed his words in Clarence Jordan's vernacular of the Southern poor says-"no more running errands for you."   NIB's commentary on the passage says  rich man cut himself off from Lazarus; maybe Lazarus was invisible to him, and now no one can reach him. There's a good definition of hell, cut off, cut off even from God. In the first movie Wall Street, Gekko says greed is good, but Martin Sheen says money makes you do things. In the new movie Gekko cannot reach his daughter, no matter how much influence he can buy. In its way, it is a contemporary parable of the allure and the downside of an obsession with more. The characters try to to reach out, but they can express themselves only within the culture of money. They make merry but happiness eludes them. So it may be appropriate to close with a monetary metaphor.

 

Maybe the old line from a hymn captures our mood:"rich in things and poor in soul".  The answer in Timothy is to be rich in generosity and good works. Where is the line between enjoying money and loving it? Generosity may be a key? The passage does not say that money is the root of all evil. The love of money is the root of all sorts of evils.

 

A virtue that defends against the love of money is contentment and giving space toward filling life with virtues. How does one learn contentment? Is it a pure gift or do we make a decision for it? Why is contentment not the same as settling, as being stuck in a rut? When is enough, enough? When can we say "That's plenty", instead of the craving for more. Just having the basics is enough, this letter says. Everything else is trying to stifle an unquenchable thirst that will not be slaked.I saw the Russian owner of the NJ Nets brag about the model of his yacht, but he had no idea where it was docked or when he was on it most recently.  If you like baseball, look into the divorce case over ownership for the LA Dodgers. The sense of the passage seems to be not relying on others for happiness, but tapping into the the God stream within where the  heart's content is found. (see Sir 27:1) Look at spiritual practices as a spiritual nest egg, or an open line of credit. With God debts are forgiven. With God the balance sheet is thrown away. With God the only interest is interest in us living an abundant life.

 

1) This is not in many people's favorites list. The Provan commentary is good. I like Peterson in 5 Smooth Stones on the collection of poems. Tod Linafelt does good work in Surviving Lamentations and notes Patricia Tull's intertextual work from Remember the Former Things, the idea that we have inner dialogue in the pages of the Bible speaking across the years.

2) This is a public lament for a public loss. I felt cheated that President Bush was so poor in expressing our public grief after 9/11, as opposed to Prime Minister Blair.

3) It is an excellent introduction to praying private grief as lament. Lament is complaint converted into prayer.

4) It uses an acrostic (alphabetic) scheme. The sense should be that we reach an end point,as we go from A to Z. It also places a frame around one's grief. It gives a sense of getting a chance fully to express one's grief.

5) In the first verses notice the multitude of words for senses of grief and loss.

6) Patricia Tull (Willey) was the first person I remember saying that the no comfort of v. 2 is answered by God in Is. 40, comfort, comfort my people.

7) v.4 middle of distress (mesar has a sense of cramped, narrow), or no way out v. the openness of yasar, a salvation word connoting being out in the open in a broad, roomy place

8) v.6 is a great evocation of trouble as it draws form the natural world

 

Ch.3:19-25

1) for me the critical piece is also the center of the who book,v.21-23

2) How hard is it to wait when in trouble?

3) It is possible, given textual issues, that remember is asking god, or others, to remember, not I.

4) the steadfast love, hesed, is one of the major descriptions of the attributes of god in the OT. The issue is how we discern that love in trouble, especially if we see it at the hand of that loving God.

5)Provan sees the portion as a way of speaking that Israel dwells in God.

6) in Hebrew vv.25-27 all start with good.

1) Notice that the ruler has confined Jeremiah.I assume it is due to the predictions of doom and exile. Where does "Babylon" besiege people now?

2) Buying the field back in the old hometown, in Benjamin territory of Judah just north of Jerusalem, but a Levitical city, seems to fly in the face of economic reality. think of some other stands one could take that fly in the face of economic, political, or social reality. Max Weber said that politics is the slow boring of hard boards. I think of the antislavery movement, the struggle for women's suffrage, the push for civil rights as example of Jeremiah-like behavior.

3) Notice how different this is than the purchases of symbolic products in 13:1 and 19:1

4) Land continuity was important to Israel (see Lev.25:23-8) In Indiana we honor 100 year family farms

5) In a way this action is a down payment on a different future. Every time farmers plant a field it is a possibly reckless act of trust.

6) Miller (822-NIB) speaks of this as an act of grace to effect "a new spirit, a new life, a new way...when we fear to go the way ourselves."

7) this leads us to consider when the future is in our hands and when it is not, when it follows old patterns, and when it changes course.

1) Notice that the ruler has confined Jeremiah.I assume it is due to the predictions of doom and exile. Where does "Babylon" besiege people now?

2) Buying the field back in the old hometown, in Benjamin territory of Judah just north of Jerusalem, but a Levitical city, seems to fly in the face of economic reality. think of some other stands one could take that fly in the face of economic, political, or social reality. Max Weber said that politics is the slow boring of hard boards. I think of the antislavery movement, the struggle for women's suffrage, the push for civil rights as example of Jeremiah-like behavior.

3) Notice how different this is than the purchases of symbolic products in 13:1 and 19:1

4) Land continuity was important to Israel (see Lev.25:23-8) In Indiana we honor 100 year family farms

5) In a way this action is a down payment on a different future. Every time farmers plant a field it is a possibly reckless act of trust.

6) Miller (822-NIB) speaks of this as an act of grace to effect "a new spirit, a new life, a new way...when we fear to go the way ourselves."

7) this leads us to consider when the future is in our hands and when it is not, when it follows old patterns, and when it changes course.

Money may not buy love or happiness, but it does make life a whole lot easier. We live in uncertain economic times. Both readings deal with the same issue; a man is facing trouble due to  his poor work performance in frittering away resources, and the folks in Jeremiah are facing ruin through no fault of their own. This passage follows on Lukan concern for dealing with possessions in the gospel and in Acts. It directly follows the great story of the two brothers in one being prodigal in squandering possessions.

 

In the story, the dishonest manager decides to ingratiate himself to debtors to the owner in order to try protect what's left of his future. When apprised of the situation, the owner looks like he will will get something, instead of nothing, but he praises the shrewdness of the manager now in a very tight spot. Is Jesus condoning dishonesty in economic dealings? Even if Jesus may have a soft spot for rogues,like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean, No. this is a heightened story to elicit comparison.These are big amounts, as Jesus likes to play with large sums to get the attention and imagination of his listeners, mostly poor struggling listeners. Could he have eliminated the religiously illegal interest (Dt. 23:19-20) or was he merely cutting arbitrarily? The big boss calls him dishonest/unrighteous,but now the steward is praised for his ingenuity.

 

Culpepper sees this as Jesus saying to cast caution aside, seize a moment of opportunity, make provisions for the future (kingdom of god?) Mammon is an Aramaic word for money. Use mammon don't fall in love with it-it is still less of a friend than God. Mammon to me is not only cash but our whole relationship to it. The trouble is we do fall in love with mammon. Is being faithful with material wealth-faithful in spiritual wealth? we do believe that we make building blocks of virtue, from small projects to larger ones. Does Jesus mean that alms-giving will make future friends? More likely, he means that how we use our money will make friends with God. think of how we give memorial funds to worthy causes. Jesus sees money as of far lesser concern that moral life, the opposite of what many, if not most of us, think, or at least how we behave with time and attention. Craddock highlights it not christening a ship but cup of cold water-write a book-write a note

 

Another way to approach this is to say that if we spent just a fraction of the time for god that we do over finances and shopping, how would it affect the quality of our souls? What if we followed God more eagerly than success?Money gets our loyalty and attention- mammon and business models in church.We have all of these panels on the wall (at Kingston) to remember people from years ago, and most of them don't mention money. We see Mammon's power in the change from WWII when we spoke of shared sacrifice to our current situation where the casualties of war are the sole sacrifice. the truth is that almost all of us are torn between attachments to spiritual riches and the lure of the love of money.

 

Is there balm in Gilead? Why not here?-Merthiolate-Money troubles are painful and worrisome. It is exceedingly difficult to tell if the prophet alone or with God is in such pathos. Money is one of our favorite balms for woe. We even have a phrase, retail therapy. Who doesn't like a treat sometime, even the most frugal among us? Life with God can ease the pain of a sin-sick soul, a broken heart, a tired body. God can even heal our relationship, our life-long torture love affair with money.

 

 

Archimedes tried to figure a way to tell real gold from fake, as the king suspected that the craftsman was slipping in silver to replace then pure gold he wanted for his crown.. when he noticed that the water in his bath rose, he figured a way to test density of objects, and he allegedly rushed through the streets saying eureka, I have found it. gold rush in California must have heard success and it is emblazoned on the state seal of California. The religious opponents of Jesus murmur/complain publically that Jesus eats with tax collectors, a poor occupation, right along with being a shepherd. (contempt/grudging for others fortune compared to ours old story of the farmer and his neighbor gets double.) Don't make the opponents supercilious judgers, as we think that birds of a feather flock together and that runninbg around with a bad crowd affects us.

 

We get a glimpse into the view of heaven. Reformed orthodoxy would say that God has every right to have any number of the lost or saved souls. Jesus has a different view. Heaven celebrates when the lost are found. Here, the shepherd risks the other 99 in an attempt to find the one lost one. Is that sensible?  Issues of punishment seem to fade in the face of someone being found. The woman loses about $50 of $500. Is it worth the fuss? the image of the elder brother in the great prodigal son story starts to enter our awareness. He cannot yell eureka. Part of us may want the lost to stay lost. 

Men don;t like to even admit that they are lost. With both girls in college, I remember some classes where I did not have a clue what we were doing and looking around stunned that some knew what we were doing. At the same time, i remember the stark terror when they would run off or hide in the men's pants, and I didn't know where they were. Fred Craddock in Luke asks us to imagine if we are being addressed or if we are there with Jesus, but with the tax collectors. Where do we identify with those grumbling about all the effor texpended toward the  lesser, even no-accounts? With Amazing Grace, when are we lost and found? When are we blind; when are we sighted? Jesus wants both the religious and the tax collectors in the party. Are sinners of value? The temptation for the good people of church is to downplay the celebration of a sinner being saved. Heaven celebrates that the healthy remain so, but to see a cure, to see a sinner find their way, is worth a party.

 

Jeremiah is utterly lost, so that the whole fabric of the world is in collapse. nothing makes sense. He sees the collapse of Jerusalem as a collapse of the order of the whole world, as if creation had gone backward into chaos, into utter disorder, even nothingness. Still, even with the doom and destruction ,the end product will not be total or final. God will still find a way to move forward. I like the old process theology slogan that "in God nothing worth saving will be lost."  Everything seems to be falling apart, or I'm at the end of my rope may get at the sense of it. If we extend Jeremiah to our own time, then we are all lost at some time or another. A parable can produce a eureka moment. for me it is the realization that as soon as we judge someone as of little value, as being outside the scope of God's grace, that puts us on the outside looking in. From God's point of view, we are all on the outside looking in sometimes, all lost or misplaced, and God is trying to keep us together, safe and sound.

1) One must make a determnation here. Is it the weeping prophet speaking or God?(vv 18, 21)

2) Even if it is the prophet look at how Heschel saw the prophets as being mediators for the pathos of god.

3) God seems to reject the contention of the people that they can rely on always being snatched from trouble, no matter what.

4) the balm of gilead had analgesic properties and its odor helped as well. What do you find soothing, even healing? One could speak of soothing the soul, the body, the mind, the heart. Where and when have you received ro given balm?

4)Why isn;t there healing for us, if healing is in gilead is a question of chosen ones feeling ignored or excluded.

5) It seems as if doom is certain here, with no way out.

6) timing is a factor that we often impsoe on god, by such and such a date I would like to see some change. patience is difficult when truble is looming or present.

7)  Medical miracles and pschotropic drugs often puts prayer now only in extremis.

8) v. 9:1 surely fits the day after 9/11, no?

Jer. 4 (first cut)
1) Some time ago, before Brueggemann shared breakfast with his buddy Mick Saunders, he (Walter not Mick) made a tape with some good analysis of this passage.It was available at CTS church resources in the basement of library, unless they removed VHS. It's touched on at 542-3 of TOT. this is one of the few OT passages where the primordial nothingness (tohu and bohu-formless and void) get picked up in other Biblical material.

2) Notice that the elements of creation structure are removed due to the acts of Israel. the threat takes on a cosmic dimension, not dissimilar to Tillich's citation of the shaking of the foundations. this may be a place ot consider theology of creation ex nihilo or an ordcered cosmos from the disorder of unstructured choas. One could go to Levenson 's Creation and the Persistence of Evil as an approach to a seemingly autonomous chaotic tension in the world.On the other hand,think of how some biologists speak of self-organization. Some of the business books pick up on chaos as possibly eventuating into creative solutions, but they are just business books, after all.

3) Give examples of where a person's world is falling apart. When does a community's world fall apart? (Sept. 11 is Saturday)

4) With his relational perspective Freheim (God and the World, for instance) makes repeted reference to the passage as an example of how enmeshed the natural order can be in human stewardship, with use or misuse. I think of some Indian tribes who saw sin as despoiling the area where they lived or the hunting grounds.
5) How do you interpret God's fierce anger?

6) How do you think God reacts when warfare ruins the environment? How does God react when warfare kills civilians...warriors?